"A couple of things are happening in Austin: a low cost of living, no income tax, and you already had a tech ecosystem there," Hired CEO Mehul Patel told Recode. He added that these factors have encouraged companies like Google, Facebook, and Dropbox to invest more in the area and increase average pay for employees.

Bay Area companies still pay the highest wages--Hired found the average annual tech salary there was $142,000--but they lag behind when adjusted for cost of living. That's why many workers are looking to cities where their dollars go further.

Hired looked at pay information in 10 U.S. and 3 international hubs and analyzed data from 69,000 people on its platform who searched for positions as software engineers, product managers, data analysts, and designers.